Mosquito
by naruwiskers
Summary: Nihon:KuroFai- Fai is thirsty and can't sleep and decides to go for a walk. Oneshot.


Fai grasped the thin blankets from amongst his feet and yanked them up to his chin. The night air in Nihon smelt strange. This thing called a 'tatami mat' was extremely uncomfortable, and he was pretty darn certain that he had seen more than a couple of servants in Tomoyo's household look at him questionably and pay particular attention to the piece of clothing that she had picked out for him this morning which she had called a 'furisode'.

Fai pulled the sheets above his head when he heard the irritating sound of a mosquito buzzing in the air above his head. The buzzing suddenly stopped, and he felt a slight movement on the tip of his nose. Earlier this evening, he had witnessed the annoying yet wonderful way of getting rid of these hateful insects called 'mosquitoes'.

Tomoyo's female servant, who's name escaped Fai at this moment, the one who had been wearing strange clothing underneath her normal clothes, that had seemed quite pointless as it was mere stringy-type material with holes in it -that was probably there just for show than anything else- had been sitting calmly atop a set of low, wooden steps that led to one of the many bedrooms in this extremely large house, when a mosquito had landed on her left shoulder.

Fai had watched in amazement as the young woman had slowly raised her right hand about 2 inches away from where the mosquito was on her arm, had slapped it (quite loudly), raised her hand and had flicked the dead mosquito from her arm. She had then casually just gone back to sitting in a relaxed position, smoking her strange long pipe, which looked not very different to one that he had seen Yuuko smoking a couple of times during communications through Mokona.

If she could do it, thought Fai, then I can. Still feeling the mosquito atop his nose, Fai raised his hand, just like she had done, and smacked it right down onto his nose.  
"Agh!" exclaimed Fai, surprised at how much a failure he was at staying in Nihon, as he heard the irritating buzz of the mosquito around his head yet again.

This was ridiculous. How did the people of this country sleep at night? Quite frustrated now, Fai thrust back his sheets with his legs and feet, and stood up. It was suddenly colder than it had been before and Fai realised his strange garment had fallen to the wood floor in his efforts to remove himself from the tatami mat. He quickly grabbed the piece of clothing and shoved it back on angrily, and walked towards the door. There was no point in even calling it a door, thought Fai. It was simply a thin slice of wood with small pieces of rice paper inside. For some unknown reason, Fai had had a hilarious image of Kurogane head butting through the rice paper stuck in his head as he quietly slid the 'door' open to reveal the night outside.

Barefoot, he silently made his way down the small wooden steps and onto the cool, dew-covered grass. Oh well, thought Fai, he hadn't really planned to sleep anyway. Exploring outside had seemed like a fun and interesting idea. Fai hadn't been getting that much sleep lately anyway. After everything that had happened in Tokyo and Celes, it seemed that his brain had decided it would torture him by playing past events over and over in a twisted manner, in which he wasn't inside his body, but witnessed everything from another point of view, like a bystander or something of the sort.

His dreams consisted mostly of Kurogane though, which he was quite ashamed to admit. They were always about blood and pain and shattering swords and severed limbs and himself drinking blood not from Kurogane's wrist, but from his neck, like he had seen those vampires do in that movie he and the kids had watched back in Piffle. This bothered him a little, because after that part of the movie, he had had to turn it off, as Miss Vampire and Mr Human had started to get a little too friendly with each other, and he felt that it was necessary, and would be much easier to deal with just by turning the movie off, rather than having to act unknowing around two exceptionally awkward children for the next couple of weeks to come. Anyway, Fai didn't exactly enjoy waking up from a dream such as this, and finding himself sweating profusely, claws out and tearing his pillow to shreds with his new fangs that seemed to enjoy giving away when he needed to feed by growing three times his teeth's normal size.

Dreams didn't really mean anything though, did they? He had once heard that they were just pieces of information stored in your brain that combined with your imagination and created things at random, using certain memories and experiences.

It was quite bright outside, even for this time of the morning. Fai let his gaze wander upwards, towards the sky and let it linger there. There were quite a few clouds in the sky, which was probably the reason behind the slightly humid weather, but none the less, a solemn, glowing half moon cast its haunting beauty onto the night through a small gap in the clouds. Fai was surprised at how many stars he could see in each tiny break of the moisture-filled wall in the sky. In Celes there had hardly ever been nights where he could see the stars so well. Even if it wasn't raining, or there wasn't a snow-storm, the rare chance where he had been privileged to see the stars had disappointed him, as they were always somehow duller than the beautiful bright ones he had marvelled at in his astronomy text books.

Setting his eyes back down to earth, before they got too carried away and stood there for the rest of the night, Fai moved onwards, feeling the cool dew around his feet once again. To his right, there were small paths with gardens filled with strange flowers, and that cursed cherry blossom tree sat amongst the flowers, looking at him ominously. To Fai's left, the moon cast deep shadows among a forest of bamboo leaves and stalks. As the magnificently tall bamboo forest swayed in the light breeze, the shadows cast by each individual stalk moved constantly and drew him towards them.

In an almost trance-like state, Fai made his way inside the forest, not knowing how large it was, holding his hands out tentatively, letting his fingertips that recognized so much more now in his whole body's changed state, feel each individual hair atop the bamboo leaves and brushing away the occasional mosquito. He felt like running forward as fast as he could, until he ran out of breath and energy, but thought better of the idea. Fai didn't really want to wake anyone up, and even if he ran as far as he could across this valley, his lungs would not take in oxygen, his muscles would not tire, and he certainly did not want to have to explain where he had been last night if he got carried away and ended up coming back to Tomoyo's household late in the day. No, he would stay and not worry the Syaoran or Mokona.

As Fai carefully walked onwards, not wanting to step on any of the millions of insects on the ground that he could easily hear now, the bamboo began to thin out, until it was sparse enough to reveal a stream which originated from the right, leading into quite a large pond of almost perfectly still water. The pond was surrounded by large rocks on all sides, apart from where the stream let the water in, and on the opposite side, where the water dropped off the side of the plateau, and formed into a small, unseen but heard waterfall quite a way down.

Not wanting to disturb the water, Fai climbed atop the nearest rock to him, and sat down as comfortably as he could. It was wonderful just sitting there in the moonlight, letting the soft breeze push his now quite long hair back every so often, and listening to the trickle of the stream and the small waterfall. The reflection of the moon looked like a small, odd shaped, glowing rock on the far side of the pool, wavering occasionally as the wind moved across the water. He could feel the minuscule bumps and grooves in the rock as he let his hands rest on it, could hear everything there was to hear in the Nihon night, the rustles of leaves caused by animals, the slight scratching of the stalks of bamboo close together, slight movements of the wood in the house behind the forest. He could smell the scent of animals and trees too, and the water had a distinct smell as well.

At that moment, two things happened. One, a stone or something of the sort was thrown into the pond, sending its surface into disarray and a current of circular waves that spread from the area the pool's surface had been punctured right around to the edges and up against the rocks.

Second, Fai felt something which he usually attempted to suppress as soon as it arose. The same feeling he had felt for the first time in Tokyo, which he had become quite familiar with since then. But Fai felt he had more control over his body than most, and though it was extremely hard, he usually kept himself in control of his situation. Without turning around, Fai asked "I couldn't hear or smell you. How did you know where I was?"  
"You shouldn't expect so less of a man in his homeland", stated a gruff, familiar voice that Fai had learnt to recognize straight away over these past couple of months. As Fai finally turned around he caught sight of the 6 foot, tan Japanese man with eyes as red as the blood in his arteries, and glimmered slightly in the light of the moon, who's light had increased as the night went on.  
"And I kind of just woke up and just started walking here of my leg's accord. Kinda felt compelled to, you know?" he said, then added "I guess I know why we're here, ne?"

He felt Kurogane's eyes stray to his hands, where his fingertips and nails had quickly grown into long, dark claws. Fai ran his tongue against his once normal teeth, which were now quite large fangs. He cast his eye which was probably glowing golden by now over to Kurogane, who averted his eyes from Fai quickly to a rock instead. As Fai watched him, Kurogane took out a small knife from within the folds of his kimono, held out his wrist and sliced across it without flinching.

Suddenly Fai's nostrils were filled with the smell of blood. Even if Kurogane had been out of sight, and others were bleeding around him, Kurogane's blood would stand out, sweet and rich against everything else. Fai hadn't even liked the taste of it the first time he had tasted it back in Tokyo, it had just tasted like putting something liquid and metal-tasting into his mouth and being made to swallow the strange substance in a rushed frenzy to save his life.

Now that he smelt and tasted it quite frequently he had come to love and crave it all the time, sometimes only a couple of hours after 'feeding' he would long for it again. Soon this huge, alien feeling had placed itself in Fai, making itself comfortable within him, building up all his cravings and wants inside his stomach, until he wanted to rip the man to shreds and take blood until there was none left, and then he could be left to die in disgrace, his supply of life cut off, gone forever, and finally he would be able to rest after all these long years. Fai turned his head away from Kurogane's arm, in a weak attempt to be less tempted. 

"Does being a... you know... feel any different to when you were, um, like, other than the blood-sucking and fangs and claws and um..." Fai waited a couple of seconds to see if he had finished, and when it was obvious that was all he could muster, decided to answer as truthfully as possible, his gaze still averted away from him and towards the water instead. Save for a few pieces of information he would rather keep to himself.

"Well, all my senses have improved. I mean, I can feel all the details in leaves and rocks now, and I can distinct between two things without looking at them just by the smell of them... I can hear everything around me with more detail too, for example your heart is beating at twice its normal rate", he explained. Fai hadn't really meant to add the last piece of information onto his description; it had just kind of come out. He was glad he wasn't looking at Kurogane, as he was afraid of what his reaction might be.

Instead of Fai's expected short grunt of a reply, Kurogane said "hurry up, the night will be gone, and I'll still be standing here bleeding like an idiot waiting for you, mage". Fai turned back around then, accidentally making eye contact with the man, and then quickly looked to his outstretched arm, fist clenched, and blood-drenched wrist facing upwards.

He slowly made his way over from the side of the water to the ninja, keeping his face down the whole time. Carefully gripping Kurogane's arm with both hands which were shaking slightly, making sure not to cut Kurogane with his own natural knives on the end of his fingertips, Fai made one rushed motion with his head to Kurogane's arm, and his lips were closed over the cut. Sucking slightly, Fai moved his mouth across any place where there was blood. All this was soon gone however, and his tongue wandered back to the cut, inside it, and felt disgusted with himself as his tongue wrapped around a pulsing artery.

His fangs were getting in the way, accidentally making the cut longer and wider. Afraid he was going to do serious damage, Fai searched with his mouth around Kurogane's arm, looking for at least a small trace of blood. There was none to be found though, and Fai had no idea what to do. The feeling inside his stomach was growing, getting stronger. It wanted to come out, take control, and devour everything in its path until it found a stronger source of blood.

With immense effort, Fai pushed the feeling down again, just a little from the surface, with great difficulty. Maybe if he used his fangs to retrieve blood from another place the craving would lessen. He let his mouth move up to Kurogane's upper arm, and noticed his arm was covered in goose bumps. Taking little notice of this in his blood-driven frenzy, Fai opened his mouth as wide as he could, and bit down, trying his best not to be rough. Despite these efforts, he heard a pained grunt from Kurogane.

Worried at this, Fai pulled away quickly, licking his mouth and stepped backwards. He looked up at Kurogane for the first time in a while, scared he had hurt him too much. The ninja's deep crimson eyes burned back at him, and Fai cast his eyes down straight away.  
"Well hurry up then; what do you take me for? A pansy or something? I'm as tough as I look, which last time I checked, was pretty darn tough" Kurogane said loudly, his breaths rushed and standing in an awkward position, "hurry up", he said again.

Fai didn't need to be told a third time. He could have sworn the man's cheeks had been turned a little red. No matter, he had told Fai to hurry up, which he would. Reclaiming his firm but frightened grip on Kurogane's arm, he pressed his fangs back into the small crevices they had made in the man's upper arm, and sucked like he did before on the cut. For a second Fai could feel nothing in his mouth, even though he was sucking. But then his mouth was filled with blood, and Fai's conclusion was that his fangs were slightly hollow, with small holes in them near the top of his mouth where the blood came through.

This seemed like a better method to Fai, as Kurogane would only be left two small marks in his arm, rather than the constant re-healing of a slashed wrist. The only problem was this way he was getting more blood, and his mind began to cloud over. It was filled only with thoughts of ripping, tearing, clawing, shredding, biting and sucking.

The monster inside Fai was almost at the surface, and Fai could only suppress it for a second longer. He let out a frightened shout as instinct and craving took over. Finally let loose to do whatever it pleased, the monster sucked and bit only for a couple of seconds later at Fai's previous bite. It tore away at the thin fabric of the shoulder of Kurogane's kimono, ripping it as easily as one would rip a piece of paper. The monster never took its mouth away as it made its way up to Kurogane's neck.

Now the one pushed beneath the surface, Fai could only watch on in horror from the monster's perspective as Kurogane went still, and felt his own possessed facial muscles twist into a horrid, evil grin. It bit into the ninja's flesh and sucked, taking almost a litre of blood with it. Trapped inside his own body, unable to break free, Fai began to worry immensely as he felt his and the monster's hands clutching either side of Kurogane's face. This completely crossed any line that had been drawn between them concerning personal space being invaded. More like flesh being invaded, he thought, as he watched from some deep place within his own body as the monster took more and more blood.

He had to do something. If he didn't, Kurogane would die, and himself as well along with him. Not that he really cared as much about his own life compared to Kurogane's. If Kurogane was to die, everything was over. Even if he somehow lived on, everything was still over. As this thought occurred, he felt the monster begin to feel a little tired. With the previous thoughts inside his head, Fai seized this opportunity to push himself forward and suppress the monster once again.

It was hard, but after a while it gave up to him, and he took a step forward to see if it had worked. Kurogane's neck was an absolute mess. It was red and swollen, and looked extremely painful. Fai looked to his hands. They were still clasped around Kurogane's face, though not so tightly, but then felt the weight on his arms and upper body, and realised the man was only just conscious, or not at all.

Still panting, and still not feeling full, Fai slowly lowered Kurogane to the ground, carefully resting his head against a rock. Not able to be so near the scent of Kurogane's blood, he quickly moved towards the pool, leant down and splashed cool water onto his face. The scent would not go away though. Fai slowly lowered his eyes to his Kimono. The beautiful cream silk was not just ruined, it had been destroyed. There were rips from his claws in several parts, but the blood was the worst. It was smeared everywhere, and towards the bottom it was absolutely soaked and dyed red.

This was horrible. Shameful. Disgusting. Inhuman, wrong. In fear of what he had done, what had yet to come if he continued to stay like this, and the general state of his so-called 'life' at that moment, Fai clutched the sides of his head, pulling his white blond and now crimson hair, and screamed. Tears filled his eyes, and he was reminded once again of his time below that dreaded tower. The flashes of the past tortured and twisted his mind once again. Standing atop a pile of dead bodies, un kept hair around his ankles, only fragments of fingernails left from his uncounted attempts to climb the wall of the tower, mind lost from already over three decades of loneliness, yet still trapped in the body of a now deformed child.

Fai kneeled on the ground. Smiling insanely, he gave a small giggle. "I'm just like an oversized mosquito".  
A faint sound came from in front of him, and Fai immediately looked up. Kurogane had one eye open, squinting slightly. He had laughed.  
"That's about..." he gave a slight cough, "the funniest thing I've ever heard in a situation as serious as this". Kurogane laughed again. It was a sick, rasping, sadistic laugh, but it was a laugh all the same.

Fai didn't know what to say, or do. He knelt there, staring at the man, unable to express how wonderful it was to hear his voice. "I-I", he stammered, attempting to form his sudden relief into words.  
"Shut up... come...here..." was Kurogane's reply to his half-hearted attempt at a sentence. Not knowing what else to do, he followed Kurogane's instruction, and crawled slowly over to the man, who was now sitting up, though still leant on the rock behind him for support. When Fai had reached the area where Kurogane was laying, he stopped short a few feet of him, unknowing of what to do next.  
"You can do... better than that... can't you?" asked Kurogane with a familiar teasing tone in his voice.

All ravenous grace lost, Fai awkwardly moved closer, until he knelt beside the man, suddenly nervous. Unexpectedly, Kurogane reached quickly towards him, around to the back of his head, where Fai felt the release of the black cloth tied around his head to hide top left hand area of his face. Without his hair tie there, which had been lost and forgotten in the process of 'feeding', the piece of material fell away easily as Kurogane pulled at it, revealing the empty eye socket there.

Fai knelt there, completely still, meeting the part shinobi, part samurai's eyes properly for the first time since they had first met one another. His eyes blood red eyes held untold stories, passion, violence, other strange emotions never witnessed by Fai, loss, anger, destruction, hope and something which continued to climb to the surface and be suppressed, over and over again.  
"Just wanted to see what it looked like. You know, so when I wrench it's magic or whatever back off that bastard I'll know where to put it."  
"It-It's pretty obvious as to where you would put an eyeball on a face with only one."  
"But beneath that one that's already there I don't understand, so I think maybe if I learn all about the one that was lost, I'll be able to find out things I never knew about its brother".

Fai looked away then, down to Kurogane's mechanical arm. It didn't fit. Perhaps if they ever found their way back to Piffle they could find one there...  
"I'm okay, really."  
"No, you're not, and we are both at fault".  
"You're right about the last bit. I'm going for a swim".

Fai watched in horror as Kurogane rose slowly to his feet, relying heavily on the large rock behind him, blood oozing from the numerous cuts, bites and scratches all over his body. Fai didn't know what to do with himself. "Erm..." he began weakly, "will you be okay on your own?"  
"Of course I will, I'm way tougher than you, remember?" assured Kurogane.

Not believing him for a second, though sure it was his queue to leave, Fai turned and ran as fast as he could through the forest of bamboo and back to the house. The last thing he had seen of Kurogane had been his Kimono, ripped to shreds and completely soaked in his own blood.

Fai wasn't gasping for breath when he reached the doorstep. He was a much bigger problem than a mosquito.


End file.
